Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • I remember a couple of years ago I used to get very little sleep. And I really struggled

  • with making the right decisions. I’d be running on four hours of sleep, and when I

  • was presented with something healthy to eat and an unhealthy choice, it was really hard

  • for me to pick the healthy one. And now a couple of years later, I get plenty

  • of sleep and it’s so much easier to make the better decisions. So whether you need

  • to refrain from eating something unhealthy, or you need to actually do something productive

  • like working on your project, getting plenty of sleep will make it so much easier, and

  • I can attest to this from my own experience. So the first big idea for strong willpower

  • is to get adequate amounts of sleep. When you don’t get enough sleep youre prone

  • to all kinds of stress, and cravings, and temptation. Research has shown that being

  • sleep deprived is very similar to being mildly intoxicated which is probably not the best

  • time to be making decisions. And too little sleep has been shown to cause problems that

  • mimic those associated with ADHD. So getting enough sleep is absolutely one of the most

  • important things you can do for your willpower.

  • Now just like you go to the gym to build muscle and get stronger, you can do the same thing

  • for your brain. And the activity that trains your brain is meditation. It makes your brain

  • grow denser, packing in more grey matter just like a muscle bulking up from exercise. And

  • research has shown that those who meditate really do have more grey matter in their prefrontal

  • cortex. And the prefrontal cortex is the area associated with decision making and willpower.

  • It’s the part of the brain that gets you to say no to something unhealthy, and it’s

  • the part of the brain that gets you to get up and start working on your project.

  • And the impact of meditation is fascinating. Even after only a few weeks of being consistent

  • with it, we can already observe the brain structure physically changing. You don’t

  • need to meditate for hours either. Even a very short period of meditation is effective.

  • You can start with five minutes of meditation focusing on your breath and move up to ten,

  • fifteen, or however long you like, but it’s much better to be consistent and do only five

  • minutes than be inconsistent. So I would personally highly recommend starting with five minutes

  • if youre just starting out.

  • I also get a ton of emails and messages, and what I used to do before was wake up and check

  • all that stuff first thing in the morning. And I would spend hours doing that, and then

  • when it was time for me to actually do creative work, I was just completely exhausted.

  • And this is because willpower’s like a muscle. It gets tired. It’s kind of like going to

  • the gym to deadlift, and instead deadlifting first, you decide it’s a good idea to run

  • on the treadmill for two hours first and then deadlift. So by the time youre done running,

  • you probably won’t have the energy to deadlift, and if you somehow do, it’s not going to

  • be the most effective workout. And that’s exactly how the brain works too.

  • You start out with your willpower for the day and then it just keeps getting depleted

  • and depleted. So one of the most important things I’ve done is to wake up and start

  • with my creative work. I never check any of the messages first thing in the morning anymore

  • because I know my willpower’s going to get depleted.

  • And I know so many people who wake up and go straight to Facebook or do something else

  • that isn’t important. Don’t do that. Youll deplete your willpower, and then you won’t

  • be able to do what’s actually important. Instead, wake up and do that important thing

  • first before your willpower gets depleted.

  • So those are the three of my favorite ideas from the book that I’ve found to be really

  • effective in my life. And to recap them briefly… 1. Make sure youre not sleep deprived.

  • Not getting enough sleep is one of the biggest enemies to your willpower.

  • 2. Just like you workout to build up muscle, you can meditate to build up your prefrontal

  • cortex. 3. Willpower’s like a muscle. It gets tired.

  • Don’t wake up and get on Facebook first thing in the morning or do anything else that

  • isn’t important, instead do the most important thing first before your willpower gets depleted.

I remember a couple of years ago I used to get very little sleep. And I really struggled

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it